Lemurian Tales
Lemurian Tales is a Story Arc of the the Exteria Multiverse. It takes place in the Treasure Ocean and follows the perspective of the young Mina Harker from Interra. Main Arc A Strange Fall Mina Harker, an apathetic noblewoman from Earth, falls in the ocean during a cruise. She wakes up in the boat of a young man called Edward of Leonion, disoriented and confused. Edward explains they are on a massive sea near the island of Amberre. Edward, once a subject of King Islington, has rebelled and decided to become a pirate, and then found Mina almost drowning in the middle of the ocean. Irritated, Mina asks to leave, but Edward is unable to help her. The boat is ambushed by Islington's troops, under the command of Don Glen of Dunban. He arrests Edward and Mina and after Mina defies them, sells them as slaves. Thankfully, the rich merchant Gerald Hermano buys them and frees them, leaving them on Amberre's ground, safe and sound. Mina begins investigating in order to find a way to escape this world and get back to her own. The Starry-Eyed Kid Edward follows Mina as she finds a young man on the streets at night. Eliott Solune, a human with seemingly fantastical powers, tells Mina he is hunted. Despite Mina's seeming egocentrism, she agrees to help hide Eliott. The latter thanks her with a mysterious trinket, a green stone. Meanwhile, the terrifying pirates of Lecter Blackheart, the most dangerous pirate of the seas, attack, burn and pillage the town. Mina escapes with Eliott's help, the young man using mysterious thunderbolts to knock Mina's enemies down. She finally confronts one of Lecter's pirates one-on-one and humiliates him while insulting his crew, defeating him and running away with Eliott and Edward using a nearby ship. However, the damage done by the Blackheart's attack force the three navigators to land on a nearby island, the Tortuga island. On Tortuga While Edward seeks to convince a retired pirate, Don Miguel Cervantes Teresa Marquis Ortega de Leon, to assist them, Mina befriends the young noble Charles Isidora. Suffering from a deadly disease, his days numbered, Charles looks for peace here, and Mina offers to refresh his ideas, making him visit several monuments, including the town of voodoo Witch Lyla Nightwood. Lyla promises Mina many adventures and that they will one day meet again, and offers Charles cryptic hints about their future. Charles then leaves, offering Mina some money in order to buy herself a small ship and new clothes. Mina thanks him and wishes him luck, before helping Edward convince Don Miguel. Appealing to his sense of adventure, she manages to wake the now disillusioned pirate return to arms, promising him adventures anew. Miguel then reveals he still possesses his old ship, and offers his newfound allies to take it. Before they can leave town, Don Glen has found them once again. But instead of stopping them, he mysteriously offers Mina money as well as a beautiful musket. He then leaves, telling her this is the King's orders. Perplexed, Mina accepts the gift, then leaves. Legend of the Pharos As the group travels, Mina spots a strange lighthouse in the middle of the ocean. Eliott speaks of a legendary Pharos housing a guardian spirit of the world, and Mina enters the lighthouse. She meets a man named Aragon Cruxiel, an old storyteller who knows many secrets about the world. He tells her of the Lemureans, a people of inventors and mages, whose civilisaiton collapsed under the oceans. The only things left of them are Seven Stars, seven jewels who hold together the power of the whole civilisation. He tells her of a tribe of supernatural beings who descend from them, living in an island hidden from man. He finally tells her of Ambition, the purple jewel that Lord Islington possesses, and the threat it poses to the world. Mina, more then ever determined, seeks to find the other jewels. Aragon swears to watch over her and looks as she strives to find the other jewels, patrolling the seas. In the Hands of Blackheart However, the boat is attacked by Lecter's fleet, who offers her an ultimatum. Mina must hand herself in, or everyone will be killed as the boat is sunk. Mina agrees and is brutally treated by Lecter, humiliated, flogged and almost raped. However, as she has an occasion to kill him with a hidden knife but finds herself unable to do so, she shakes something in the cruel pirate's heart. Soon, something attacks Lecter's fleet. All his men are found dead as an abomination, a Wraith clad in purple armor bearing Islington's symbol, attacks the ship. It attempts to kill Lecter in order to "protect Mina" but the latter refuses and shields Lecter. An annoyed Wraith, revealed to be mentally controlled by Islington using Ambition, leaves, with Lecter and Mina stranded. Far from the influence of his ancient crew and alone with Mina, Lecter begins to grow slightly more compassionnate, while still remaining brooding and cynical. The two of them are then found by Miguel's ship, and Lecter joins the ship as Mina's second in command. Finding the Gemstones The ship soon meets another : captain Amaranth Hermano's galleon. The captain, after asking the whereabouts of her arch-nemesis Gerald, navigates towards an island where the gemstone Eternity lies. Amaranth, as well as Lyla who joined her, explore the island, Mina and her crew on her tail. The group finally finds a mausoleum built for Aragon's wife Beatrice Cruxiel, long since dead. Mina learns Aragon and Beatrice are both ancient Lemureans, and recovers Eternity from Beatrice's finger. However, they are attacked by a mercenary from Amberre, Rufus Starrke. Powered by a gem named Passion, the mercenary attacks the group in a self-destructive fit of rage, but is distracted by a second Wraith. He fights the wraith and emerges victorious, ending up joining the crew out of a desire to fight more interesting foes. The group reluctantly accepts him as a new member. Finally, discussing with Eliott, Mina understands he is born from the tribe that descends from Lemureans. Thanks to Eliott's guidance, Mina manages to find a path towards the mythical Island of Gold, the El Dorado of the seas that attracted the attention of many pirates... and Eliott's home island. Inside a Dream Mina and her crew reach the Island of Gold and are subjugated by its beauty, but are saddened upon seeing their queen Emiliana Solune almost dying. Zariès Regulion, her retainer, attempts to make them leave. When they refuse, he brings them to a mausoleum and explains the truth. All Seven Stones corrupt their wielders slowly, as with Emiliana's stone Utopia who allows the golden dream to persist. She is dying just as her mother (who is also Eliott's mother) died and the presence of humans on this island hastens the process. Mina and the others are about to leave, but a third Wraith interrupts them. Mina is forced to tear Utopia from Emiliana, freeing the woman from her curse as well as turning the island's gold to dust. Saddened by this destruction, Mina still runs away with Emiliana, Zaries with her, the group going back towards the boat. The Last Stones Mina however is weakened. She used the strange musket to slow down the wraiths and obtain Utopia, but it has a strange lure on her. When Edward attempts to remove the gun from her, she responds by knocking him down and running away from the rest of the crew, jumping in the water. However, she finds herself in the midst of thick fog, a phantom vessel appearing in front of her. The vessel's captain, Freed Augustine, cursed by the stone Promise to wander eternally, helps Mina by using her power before she becomes a Wraith as well. A freed Mina, grateful for her help, uses the power of the stars she has collected to trick Promise into allowing Freed to wander in her ship as well. The musket is thus destroyed. Finally, the fated meeting between Gerald and Amaranth happens - with a bit of luck as well as meddling from Mina's part - and the two, after a brief brutal exchange, reconcile, revealed not as bitter enemies but as star-crossed lovers. A seventh Star, Harmony, is carved out of the two lovers' ring. The six Stars are now in Mina's crew's possession. His Endgame As the Stars have all awakened, it is time for Lemuria, the city under the waters, to surface. However, Islington has expected this as well as his fleet under Glen's command rush towards the city. Mina and her crew manage to slow them down, but Glen had enough time to seize Passion from Rufus. He uses the Star as a way to sacrifice his own life and realise his dreams : leading his king to the last treasure of Lemuria. A gate opens... Mina rushes into the gate, and finds the king : Charles Isidora Islington. The pale boy she once encountered explains that Ambition's magic slowly drained his family's health, dooming him from birth. He seeks the final gemstone within Lemuria's keep, the power to become immortal at last. Mina cannot prevent him from doing so, unable to let a child die. The Final Blessing However, the final keep is empty, and Charles dies from exhaustion a couple seconds afterwards. A raging Mina screams at the world, asking for a justification. Aragon's spirit then appears near her, telling her the true power lies not within the destination but within the journey she took. As she reached this place, she can become herself the eight of Seven Stars : Truth. Mina shines and her Akashic powers manifest at last, allowing her to rewrite reality, saving Glen and Charles as well as resurrecting Eliott's mother. As a last gift before finding eternal rest, Aragon gives her a map of sights unseen, as well as the promise that their adventures will never end. Mina then departs on other adventures, her dream of going back to her native world long since gone. Other Arcs Sigma's Tale Sigma first arrives to the Treasure Ocean to see Eliott's mother Amberia Solune dying due to the men of his husband, the human John Solune. She looks as Zaries Regulion's hatred for mankind begins to grow and prevents him from killing all humans, letting John escape with a wounded Eliott. Together they defeat a Specter born from mankind's greed before Sigma leaves. While looking for a Book of Tenkuro, Sigma stumbles upon pirate Hamilcar Blackheart's fleet as the pirate humilates his young son Lecter. Sigma briefly confronts the hateful pirate long enough to retrieve the book and defeat the Qliphoth inside. When she exits the book, Lecter has already stabbed his father, the legacy of hatred deeply present in him. Sigma then leaves the dimension. Pirates of the Stars Many years later, having reached the Cheshire Isle, Mina and Lecter are sent by Kuri-ma Mazda in another dimension to retrieve the cosmic pirate Phoenician. During the operation they are captured by Queen Gryffin, an eerily empty queen that seeks to torture them in order to obtain Mina's powers. Phoenician arrives and frees them, and while Lecter helps Phoenician escape with them, Mina uses her Akashic powers to reach out to Gryffin. Mina retrieves Gryffin's Soul from the clutches of The Nothing and incapacitates the entity that was corrupting her, Sayuri Ninube. Xelias's timely intervention severs the bond between Sayuri and Lethe and allows Mina, Lecter, Phoenician and Gryffin to escape unscathed. While Phoenician helps Mazda, Lecter and Mina tend to a slowly recovering Gryffin and help her be human again. Characters * Mina Harker * Edward of Leonion * Eliott Solune * Rufus Starrke * Lyla Nightwood * Lecter Blackheart * Zariès Regulion * Don Miguel Cervantes Teresa Marquis Ortega de Leon * Charles Isidora Islington * Don Glen of Dunban * Freed Augustine * Aragon Cruxiel * Other Treasure Ocean Characters Trivia * This storyline is meant as an affectionate parody of the pirate adventure genre. * Despite the race's name being "Lemurean", the story's name is "Lemurian Tales". This is because it does not refer to the race (Lemurean) but to the continent of Lemuria. * This storyline's theme song, as chosen by its author, is Yuki Kajiura's Sand Dream. Category:Treasure Ocean Category:Storyline